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(Agence de Presse Africaine Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Technical hitches over the use of popular Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services such as Skype and Viber are causing a serious loss of revenue to GSM companies in Gambia.Telecommunication industry sources said this is so because subscribers had to buy the bytes to use those services from the GSM operators.

"Subscribers were buying bytes to use these services but that has stopped. Obviously it will have an effect on the revenue we are supposed to make", an anonymous source told the African Press agency in an interview on Saturday.

The source said that it actually does not make any difference to GSM operators, whether subscribers use their phones to Skype.

He said all that mattered to GSM companies was that subscribers buy the bytes they use to access those services.

Meanwhile, there have been negative acknowledgements as to why there are difficulties in the use of these services in the country.

The ministry of Communication reacted to speculations in April this year of being behind the blockade, saying the government had no plan to impede such services.